HUNTERSVILLE, N.C.—Kyle Busch has found a comfort zone at Joe Gibbs Racing.

Busch, who joined the team in 2008 after three Cup seasons at Hendrick Motorsports, signed a multiyear contract extension with Gibbs that is believed to take him through 2015, although Busch did not confirm the length of the deal.

Busch, 27, talked to two other teams—he wouldn’t name them—but felt most comfortable staying at JGR, where he has recorded 20 of his 24 career Cup wins.

“I did meet with some other teams and they were very interested and there were some very nice, lucrative deals that were out there to pursue,” Busch said Thursday at JGR. “Ultimately what it comes down to is relationships and things that you’ve developed over the last five or six years.”

JGR typically tries to lock up its drivers a year in advance. Team owner Joe Gibbs went to Busch in August to talk about the extension, and Busch said he wanted to wait until the end of the year.

“I’m always concerned when it comes to signing our drivers,” Gibbs said. “We always start a year early. We never go to the last year. … You have a gifted athlete and other people are going to go after him, which happens.

“I always worry about it until I get it done.”

Gibbs said that with other teams trying to lure his driver, Busch could have gotten more money despite what has been a downward adjustment in driver salaries in recent years because of the economy.

“There are people with race teams and all it takes is two (to drive up the salary),” he said. “All the drivers, they’re in a good spot because (when) one becomes available … it’s very competitive.”

In hopes of getting Busch back into his comfort zone, the organization will allow Busch to increase his racing in series other than Cup. He will run 25 Nationwide races this year for JGR and 10 Camping World Truck Series events for his own team.

Kyle Busch Motorsports will still field a Nationwide car for Parker Kligerman but it will use engines from JGR and not Triad Racing Technology, which the team used last year.

Last year, JGR initially limited Busch to 17 Nationwide races and no truck races in hopes of increasing his Cup focus, but he wound up winning just one Cup race and missing the Chase, primarily because of mechanical issues. By the end of the year Busch had been allowed to increase his racing outside of Cup.

“We didn’t want to prove it, but we kind of proved that (skipping other races) didn’t do anything,” Busch said.

Busch has 105 victories across NASCAR’s three national series, with 24 in Cup, 51 in Nationwide and 30 in the Camping World Truck Series.

“He thrives on (the complete schedule),” Gibbs said. “He kind of took a year where he didn’t do as much and now his schedule is going to be crowded. But I don’t think it is something that he can’t handle.”

Crew chief Dave Rogers also sees the benefit.

“There were certainly some benefits to him not driving—I had access to him during the Nationwide race, other drivers didn’t get mad at him because he jumped them on a restart or crazy stuff like that that tends to happen,” Rogers said.

“But the con that you gave up is Kyle really loves to race racecars. He is the very happiest when he is sitting in the seat driving the car to its limit. The negative to him not driving—he just wasn’t as excited to go to the racetrack each weekend because he was only going to drive one time instead of three.”

So Rogers is happy that Busch is running more races. And he’s even happier that Busch got his contract done in the offseason.

“I was never concerned that Kyle would sign,” he said. “Over the years, he and Joe have been really true to each other and had each others’ backs. So I knew he would sign.

“I’m very thankful that they worked out the details in the offseason and didn’t let it bleed into the regular season.”

Busch said that, like Gibbs, he wanted it have a decision before going to the Daytona 500.

“This is the best place for me,” Busch said. “There was a time where it was very, very tough, where it became D-Day and you’ve got to make a decision. If you do venture off to do something different, then (you’ve got) all of the hurt and everything else that is going to go on through that.

“That wasn’t the main reason of staying. Just the relationships you’ve had over the time, it just made sense to keep going.”